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132 BY PATH AND TBATL. loaded with supplies for the infant mission sailed out of the harbor of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, and pass ing through the straits of Magellan, finally, after two months of ocean travel, rounded Cape San Lucas and anchored in the Yaqui bay, Gulf of Cortes, now the Gulf of California. Father Salvatierra, who had come over land to Sonora, was, with the illustrious Kino, giving a mission to the Yaquis when he was informed of the ar rival of the ship. Kino made preparations to accom pany him to Lower California when the Governor of Sonora intervened. The provinces of Sinoloa and Sonora were at this particular time threatened with an Indian uprising, the governor refused to let Kino leave him, contending that the influence of the priest in controlling the rest less Yaquis and Mayos was greater than the pres ence of a thousand soldiers. So Salvatierra sailed alone out of the Yaqui bay and in October landed in Lower California, twenty miles north of the site chosen by Otondo for his unfortunate colony. Like that heroic Canadian missionary, Breboeuf, Salvatierra, when he landed, knelt upon the beach and placing the country under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, invoked the help of God in the work he was about to undertake. Then rising he exclaimed aloud, " hie requiescam, quoniam elegi earn" I will remain here, for I myself have cho sen it. After the landing of the baggage, the provisions and a few domestic animals the party rested for the night. Here is the roster of the first settlement and prac tically the first Christian mission which led to the civili zation of the tribes and the exploration of all California. A Portuguese pick and shovel man called Lorenzo, three Christianized Mexican Indians, a Peruvian mulatto, a |
